Have you tired of waiting in line at Apple’s Fifth Avenue store? You may want to check out JFK Airport next time. Apparently, two thieves who wanted an iPad mini took the direct route, driving away with $1.5 million worth of iPad minis Monday night from the New York City airport. The snatch-and-grab happened at the same cargo area made famous in the movie “GoodFellas.” Although the crooks snatched two pallets with 3,600 minis from China and destined for U.S. buyers, they left three more loads likely to have held even more of Apple’s newest tablets…

“So, as a caper goes, it was probably unsuccessful,” a law enforcement source told the New York Post Thursday.

According to the Post, two thieves used the airport’s own forklift to load the iPads into their truck just before midnight Monday. The truck was labelled “CEVA” although Cargo Airport Services was the name of the company that shipped the tablets.

Three airport workers are being polygraphed by investigators who suspect the theft was an inside job. Although the crooks involved left most of the iPad minis still in the airport’s Building 261 after being questioned by one airport worker, someone let the thieves into and out of an area which has less security, according to the paper.

Waiting for Steve Ballmer to claim iPad mini heist was just a publicity stunt by Apple to try and bring public attn. away from the Surface

The same building where the iPad minis were snatched was also where in 1978, suspected gangland thieves stole $5 million in cash and $900,000 in jewelry from a Lufthansa flight. That theft was featured in Martin Scorses’s “GoodFellas” film.

Here’s a nice little documentary on the Lufthansa Heist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt-GyX8-4Qg

So, if you are approached on the street with a really good deal on a new iPad mini, you have a good idea they originated from New York City, not Cupertino.